A refrigerator is utilized to store various foodstuffs under either a frozen or a refrigerated condition for extending the freshness of the foodstuffs stored in the compartment. Such a refrigerator consists of one of two cooling types, one being a direct cooling type, that is, an evaporator in a refrigerating cycle is installed in a foodstuff storage chamber, and a direct heat-exchange is obtained. The other type of cooling is the indirect cooling type, that is, an evaporator is mounted in a passage, which is separated from the foodstuff chamber and the air which is heat-exchanged by the evaporator is directed to the foodstuff storage chamber by means of a fan.
The above refrigerator normally consists of freezing and refrigerating compartments, one being located above the other. Furthermore, the refrigerating compartment is provided with a separate chamber, having a different temperature from that of the refrigerating compartment, known as a "vegetable compartment" or a "chilled compartment" which stores meats etc. The foodstuffs can be separately stored in the chamber in accordance with the desired conditions. On the front surface of each of the freezing and refrigerating compartments a door is installed. The doors hinge on vertical side in order to provide access to the foodstuffs in their respective compartment. For the passage of cool air, a condenser and a fan are installed in the rear wall of the freezing compartment.
Recently, since the refrigerating compartment is more frequently used than the freezing compartment, when the foodstuffs are stored in or taken from the refrigerating compartment, in order that the user can use the refrigerator more conveniently, the refrigerating compartment is arranged at the upper portion of the refrigerator whilst the freezing compartment is arranged at the lower portion of the refrigerator. The conventional refrigerator is shown in FIG. 6, that is, a refrigerating compartment 6 is in the upper portion of the refrigerator and beneath the refrigerating compartment 6 there is provided a freezing compartment 5, and between the refrigerating compartment 6 and the freezing compartment 5 there is provided an intermediate partition wall 4.
In the intermediate partition wall 4 there is provided an evaporator 7 for cooling the air circulated from the interior of each compartment and. At the rear portion of the evaporator 7 is installed a fan 8 for circulating cool air the fan facing toward the inner rear wall of the refrigerator. Part of the cool air passing the evaporator 7 is circulated to the inside of the freezing compartment 5 by the fan 8. The other part of the cool air is conducted upwardly through a main duct 3 disposed in the upper part of rear wall of the refrigerator. That air enters the refrigerating compartment 6 through a plurality of openings 13 which are formed in an inner wall of the duct 3 so that foodstuffs in the refrigerating compartment 6 are stored in accordance with the temperature range corresponding to the individual characteristic of the specific foodstuffs.
Further, at the entrance of the main duct 3 there is mounted a damper 11 for controlling the air volume directed to the refrigerating compartment 6 by the fan 8. A vegetable container 9 is placed in the lower portion of the refrigerating compartment 6 to contact cool air circulating through refrigerating compartment 6 for keeping the foodstuffs in the proper condition. In the front portion of the intermediate partition wall 4 there are formed upper and lower openings 14,15 for conducting to the evaporator 7 the cool air from the refrigerating compartment 6 to the freezing compartment 5, respectively. Further, in the intermediate partition wall 4 there is formed an air conducting passage (not shown) for guiding the cool air flows entering in the intermediate partition wall 4 through openings 14,15.
The air conducting passage is formed in order that the cool air entering through the opening 14 from the refrigerating compartment 6 is induced to flow to a horizontal end of a front side of the evaporator 7. Thus, a first exit of the incoming portion of the air conducting passage is disposed closely adjacent to an end of the front side of the evaporator 7. Simultaneously, the air conducting passage is formed in order that the cool air entering through the opening 15 from the freezing compartment 5 is induced to flow to a horizontal central portion of the front side of the evaporator 7. Thus, a second exit of the incoming portion of the air conducting passage is disposed closely adjacent to the front side of the evaporator 7.
Thus, the cool air from the freezing compartment 5 and from the refrigerating compartment 6 are guided separately through the air conducting passage until reaching the evaporator 7. As a result the evaporator is easily covered over with frost in that the air from the refrigerating compartment 6 has a moisture of high density. Further, since the cool air from the freezing compartment 5 and from the refrigerating compartment 6 are is passed through separate lanes of the evaporator 7, the heat-exchanging efficiency of the evaporator is decreased.